First off thanks for developing this stove and for the great website. I notice on the recent update that your hole pattern has changed to have 15 holes on both rows. Any reason for the change?

I first experimented with alcohol stove a couple of years ago and built a couple of regular pepsi can and the photon variety. I remember seeing the cat can stove plans but didn't have any cans handy (no pets) so didn't try any. Just finished building one and must say I'm impressed with the simple design and construction required.

Regarding your question about the new hole pattern, I guess the answer is just that I wanted to simplify construction even more than that of the original and the new pattern was easier to describe.

A few additional holes also seem to make the stove burn a bit hotter, though as noted in the article, a variety of hole patterns also work fine.

Just got back from a chilly BP trip in the West VA highlands with temps in the low 20'sF. The basic Super Cat, built as described in the new article, performed like a champ. Because the water and air temps were both low, it took a bit over 1 fl oz of alcohol to boil two cups of water, but when using the Fire Bucket as a windscreen, got the job with no problems.

Jim Wood wrote:Regarding your question about the new hole pattern, I guess the answer is just that I wanted to simplify construction even more than that of the original and the new pattern was easier to describe.

A few additional holes also seem to make the stove burn a bit hotter, though as noted in the article, a variety of hole patterns also work fine.

Thanks. I used the template from the Zen Stoves site http://zenstoves.net/Templates.htm#3ozAluminum which makes it easy to line up the holes. I added a simmer modification which covers/uncovers the lower row of holes to create a "simmer cat" as needed. I used a of ring of aluminum (from a pop can) which covers the lower row of holes but has matching holes. This ring can be rotated to uncover/cover the holes in the lower row.

I imagine the same thing could be done with the docking system described on your website.